Monday, 3 December 2012

Commonwealth Championships 2012 - Second Half

By Moulthun Ly

Going
into the 7th round, Junta was sitting on a solid 4.5/6. Up against GM
Deepan Chakkravarthy J. with the white pieces. I remember him well from
when we played last year, as the win managed to knock me slightly over
the rating barrier, earning me the IM title.

"very lucky, he was just checking the perpetual check (only move to start checking too) but thought for 1 second too long..."

Round
8 was against an Indian IM whereby he played the french for the first
time. Sharma chose a lesser known sideline, which I have currently also
been playing with a mixed success rate. The play became quite sharp and
both players missed some chances to gain an advantage. "missing easy and
not-so-easy wins" (Junta)

Round 9 had him paired against IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman. When I
first saw this pairing, I was immediately reminded of our previous and
only encounter. Almost 5 or so years ago when I played her. The game was
in the last round of a big open tournament for my final norm. I played a
very effective King's Gambit but failed at the very last hurdle,
gifting away free point. After that game, I took a break from chess for a
couple of years, before returning. But it still serves as a reminder
for me, that the final move is always the one that counts.

A critical endgame position is reached, as we know piece activity is important. Therfor 37. Kd4!
makes perfect sense. After 37. Kd4 Re2 38. Bc6+ Ke7 39. Bxb5 Rxb2 40.
Bc4 Rh2 41. Rc6! with a very small advantage to white due to his
activity.

The
following round Junta drew with GM Grover, Sahaj as the black pieces.
Playing a very interesting sideline with an early ...b6 and ...Bb7 in the
Queen's Indian kind of position. He equalized quite comfortably before
the game drifted towards a draw.

In
the last round, played another IM from India, Narayanan Srinath. Once
again managing to draw with his opponent to finish on a respectable
7.5/11. Overall it was a very solid performance, losing only 1 game in
the 11 rounds! Looking from the cross table is looks like the
tournament results I usually have, with the numerous half points. He will
now continue his momentum into the next tournament which is the Kolkata
Open, which i believe starts on the 3rd of December. Best of Luck!

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1.Each of the letters in FIGJAM is the first letter of the first name or surname of each of the contributors of this blog: we are a group of young Australian chess players. 2.Take sweet dry figs and flatten them one by one.
When they are all well flattened take a clean new jar and make a layer of rose petals.
On top of that put a little sugar and a layer of figs and in this way fill the whole jar.
Seal the jar and leave it for fifteen to twenty days.
Then taste the figs and you will see it is a beautiful and delicious dish.